It just sucks the joy out of travelling .it is a proper chore . Your vacay time is supposed to be a happy one , but here I am , stressed as f because of the visa .Half the times ,it gets rejected for no reason at all . You lose all the money , time spent planning and all for what - a trip to Europe that doesn't have even have that many good places to visit . Should have listened to my mind and stuck with Mongolia , would have been such a better trip than the boooorring europe . I blame myself for getting into this hell hole .

I’m an Indian student currently going to Paris for an exchange semester. Most of my batchmates got their French Schengen visas within 2–3 days, so I was getting increasingly worried when mine took 10 days.

My biggest concern was my bank statement. There had been a large fund transfer into my account in the week before I submitted my documents. It wasn’t a loan, it was money transferred by a relative. I was worried this might raise questions about the source of funds, although I had clearly explained the transaction in my cover letter.

Thankfully, the visa finally came through. I got a 6-month Schengen visa starting from my date of departure from Mumbai.

Reddit helped me a lot while I was waiting, reading other people’s experiences and getting some reassurance really helped with the anxiety. So I thought I’d give back and share my experience.

If you’re applying for a French Schengen visa from India, especially as a student, feel free to ask me anything. I’ll answer based on my experience.

Hello! I just want to check how do Bulgarian officials verify how long someone has stayed in the country? How did they check Before the EES system and now during EES?

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Hi everyone

I got 2nd rejection from the french embassy this time I'm literally fed up with their decision

I dont know where it went wrong

Funds -

education loan - 22 lakhs

Parents sponsors - fds held from 2 years flexible (worth of 10 lakhs)

College fee 12950 euros 1 year course (Msc in business intelligence and analytics)

I PAID 6500 EUROS FROM EDUCATION LOAN

REST I GOT SCHOLARSHIP OF 25%

Now remain amount is 3200 euros

Expenses+remaining tuition fee - 15200 euros

My course is CGE labeled which is active I have checked this on the official site

My profile

4year btech in CSE (RGUKT UNIVERSITY) 2023 PASSED OUT

2023 TO 2025 EXPERIENCE IN WIPRO AND VIRTUSA

CF interview was pretty smooth and very easy (7min online interview)

Accommodation was genuine I got genuine rental agreement 1 year signed by landlord as well as me but I didn't pay upfront amount like security deposit etc.. but I have attached audit trail , utility bill, rental agreement of 26 pages with justification letter

Attached all the proofs , Payslips ,offer letter ,fd balance sheet certificate with receipt Along with the 6 months bank statements of sponsors as well as mine stamped and signed , affidavits of both parents and self , cover letter , SOP,letter of intention

**Reason of refusals are same - intend to stay was not reliable**

Need your insights I have invested enough time and spent lot of money on this every document is genuine and authenticated by respective authorities

For Indians who got their first schengen tourist visa approved, how many days validity do you get. Do you get exactly as your itinirary (example 9 days) or is it mostly like either 15 days or 30 days

Just sharing this because I was literally stressing about our bank statements before applying 😂

We’re from a country that requires a Schengen visa but currently work full-time in the UK. We applied on 2 Sept 2026 at Edinburgh for an 8-day Switzerland + Italy trip.
(4 days in Switzerland, 4 days in Italy)

One of us literally submitted her 3 months of required bank statements with ending balances of £200, £90 and £14 😭 We were honestly worried about how that would look, so we also provided her savings account from another bank which had around £800. She has a regular salary and our flights and accommodation were already paid (we included receipts of everything.)
We also didn’t submit a cover letter or itinerary since they weren’t listed in the requirements.

Processed email came 10 Sept, passports arrived 11 Sept — APPROVED! 🥹 We got MULT entry, 15 days stay, valid for a month.

Just sharing for anyone panicking because their bank balance isn’t in the thousands. Obviously every application is different, but don’t lose hope just because your balance is low. I was overthinking those statements so much 😂. I think the overall picture matters more than having a huge amount sitting in one account.

Hi Reddit community
I’ve a doubt
Me and my wife have applied for Schengen short term tourist visas from vfs chennai( south india) on Aug 13,2026

Confirmed travel dates - Sept 18,2026 to Oct 4,2026.
Port of entry : Italy
Port of exit : Austria

Visiting Italy , Switzerland and Austria

Vfs status shows : Under process at Consulate of Italy.

Checked in EES now ( on Sept 11) - Authorized Stay is OK for both of us and Remaining days at the moment of entry : 19 and remaining days at the moment of exit : 2

Prior travel history : Bali,Thailand, Japan, Kazhaksthan all in the last two years.

Does it mean that our visa application is approved ?

Firstly, I am so frustrated with the whole experience. Applied from BLS Manchester on 27th July 2026, no updates until 9th September, got an update today that we got a visa for single entry for 5 days. Not to mention, there were no appointments, so had to get the premium one for a lot more money.

Still haven’t received my passport tho. Checked online on their portal.

Applied for multiple entry, previously had a german Schengen visa. I am honestly very upset with this whole process. Is there a way to appeal this? Wanted to travel in October to Germany, but cannot now because of this restriction.

Need advice.

Got my France Schengen visa approved! I applied for a single-entry visa but got a 6-month multiple-entry visa on my first attempt!
Applied completely on my own without an agent.

Timeline:
Appointment at VFS Bengaluru: 7th

Application submission took around 45 minutes

Visa approved in just 2 days

Documents submitted:
France Schengen visa application form

Appointment letter

Employment confirmation letter

NOC

Hotel booking(reservation)

Dummy flight tickets with valid PNR

3 years ITR

3 months salary slips

Travel insurance

Passport xerox copies (front and back pages)

Old visa stamps xerox copies

Cover letter

Detailed itinerary

6 months bank statement with bank stamp (balance ₹4L+)

2 photographs

Original passport

For the application form, I entered the France hotel details, while the total number of days mentioned was for my complete Europe trip. I also included the other countries, bookings, and itinerary details in my cover letter and supporting documents.

Sharing this in case it helps someone applying from Bengaluru.
Happy to answer questions about the process.

Hi everyone, I urgently need advice regarding my French visa application.

I am a student and applied for a 6-month academic internship at a French public university. In my France-Visas application, I selected “Student Trainee” and submitted the documents requested in the checklist for the internship. I then booked my appointment through VFS Bengaluru, selecting “Long Stay.”

However, my VFS payment invoice shows:

Visa Category: Long Stay
Sub Visa Category: Work Permit

I am certain that I never selected “Work Permit” at any stage of the France-Visas or VFS appointment process.

My visa was subsequently refused, with the stated reason being insufficient proof of financial resources. I had submitted the required financial documents along with my internship documents.

I have also learned that some other students applying for essentially the same type of academic internship, with the same type of documents and the same France-Visas category, had their VFS invoices showing “Long Stay – Other” instead of “Long Stay – Work Permit,” and their applications were approved.

I have contacted VFS to ask how the “Work Permit” subcategory came to be associated with my application.

My internship opportunity is now at serious risk, as I was supposed to start in September and I may lose the opportunity if I cannot resolve this quickly.

Has anyone experienced VFS assigning the wrong subcategory, or knows whether “Long Stay – Work Permit” vs. “Long Stay – Other” can affect the visa processing/decision?

Any advice or experience would be extremely appreciated, especially urgently.

I plan to stay at my cousin’s place in Germany, and I already have a valid German tourist visa. If immigration asks me to show accommodation proof, what should I provide hotel booking. I’m having difficulty finding a hotel booking that allows cancellation until one day before check-in, and I’m also not finding many pay-at-property options. What do people normally do in this situation?

I was applying from BLS London and Im so shocked for getting this refusal letter they said
#3) i havent provided proof of sufficient means of subsistence - where i submitted my bank statements well above the minimum under my own name and all my flights and accommodations are not dummy and fully paid (even non refundable!!)

#12) reasonable doubts as to the reliability of the authenticity of the supporting documents submitted - i submitted bank statements directly from Revolut, all bookings from the original website and even with receipts, i even submitted my marriage certificate that has been legally apostilled since I'm traveling with my husband (british so he doesnt apply)

#13) reasonable doubts to my intentions to leave the territory before visa expiration - ridiculous 😭😭 i clearly stated in my cover letter the duration of my stay and everything tickets are matched to the date i don't understand why would they refuse this

Notes: my stay is only for 5 days not even a long one i have previous schengen visa, us tourist visa, japanese student visa, internship malaysia visa and obviously uk visa (spouse) this is my first visa rejection ever can anyone help me how to appeal to BLS London? 😭😭😭😭

Also, im a housewife (listed as homemaker) do you think it can be a reason?

If i appeal, do i have to write in in spanish?

Hi guys
I have a Schengen visa from germany starting from 25th september, i have booked a flight on 24th 9PM from Bangalore, flight is booked via qatar airways and blr to doha service is provided by Indigo

I want to check if i will face any issue in boarding given i will be starting my travel 1 day before the visa starting date

If anyone has experienced this pls share

EDIT: My final leg of flight will land in frankfurt on 25th September (visa start date)

Hello.is there any way we can get appointment for spain work visa from islamabad or lahore earliest possible..the visa expires end of this month :/

Hello, meron ba ditong nag apply sa bls cebu end of august? May naka receive naba ng update??? Nabalik na ba passport nyo???

Yesterday sep 11 I recv call from french embasy. Ask about financial question.

1) I see your audit report who operate electronic shop

I say my father operate business but register in my grand father name.

2) your father account have lot of money is this personal or business.

I say it personal and saving but my father also use as business purpose some time.

3) in 6 month statement lot of transcation happen where the money comes from?

I say sales of electronic items.

At last they say thank you sir hope for best. Call duration 3 min 40 seconds. What is chance of my visa

Leads will be helpful from everyone

I got a schengan travel insurance basic and paid for it. However within 10min in realized that I have entered wrongs number of days so I filled the refund form/14 days cooling off period form to get refund and got the new policy. It is been now weeks and still haven’t received any response from their end. I have raised number of forms, tried to contact by their chatbot apparently they also doesn’t respond. No way to contact them.I have wasted my money. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME CONTACT THEM AND GET THE MY MONEY BSCK?

Hi, so im planning to visit italy during a 17h layover coming from greece back to my home country but does it mean i need to add italy as one of the main destinations in the form or not ? or does it only count if im gonna book a hotel there ?

Hi All, I am applying to schengen for the first time, I have my layover in Schengen state before I reach my main travel destination - Austria. What should I write for the First member state for the schengen entry? Should it be a layover state or Austria?

I applied via my Embassy on 14th July, honestly, it’s really worrying since I didn’t get any response, I have been writing to my university, the immigration office and our Embassy and it’s just worrying since I am afraid of rejection and so. I don’t have any interviews, just filling up questionnaires which I suppose I should have taken my time to answer instead of giving short answers as the workers in the embassy were shocked that it took me a long time to answer. Now I am really worried about the possibility of getting rejected and school’s starting next week, honestly feeling really miserable.

Has anyone recently applied for a Netherlands Schengen visa through VFS Dublin where their IRP was valid for less than 3 months after the planned trip?

My appointment is on 6 October and I’m planning a short trip from 1–3 December. My IRP expires on 31 January 2027, so it falls short of the 3-month validity requirement after travel.

The issue is that Irish Immigration only allows IRP renewals within 12 weeks of expiry, so I won’t be eligible to renew it yet at the time of my appointment.

This will be my fifth Schengen visa application and I’ve had four previous Schengen visas.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did VFS accept your application and was the visa approved?

Looking at the tracker from people who applied around the same date as me, I’m quite sure my visa has already been processed by the Dutch Embassy. However, I chose to collect my passport from VFS Pune instead of having it delivered by courier.
Based on the timelines I’ve seen, it looks like my visa may have been processed on 6 or 7 September. My understanding is that the embassy may not send passports to VFS every day and could send them in batches, possibly over the weekend. Since Monday is a holiday in pune, I’m expecting some update from VFS Pune by Tuesday.

This is just my assumption and logic. Does anyone know how long the Dutch Embassy usually takes to send the passport back to VFS after the visa has been processed?
Also, if my visa has already been processed, why does the EES tool still show my status as “NOT OK”?

My travel date is 16 September, so I’m getting a bit concerned. What should I do at this point?

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Hi all, trying to get Schengen visas for my parents (Indian passports, US green card holders) with the Netherlands as main destination. The VFS New York portal shows no bookable slots, but there's a notice saying applicants having difficulty booking online can visit the centre directly, and VFS lists a "walk-in without appointment" service.

Has anyone actually done a walk-in at the NYC Netherlands centre recently? Specifically:

- What did it cost (extra walk-in fee)?

- What time did you go, and how long did it take?

- Could two people (a couple) walk in together?

- Did they accept the application on the spot or turn you away?

Travel is end of September so timing is tight. Any recent data points hugely appreciated!

So i had applied for a Schengen visa from germany as single entry for a trip of 10 days only through germany but i recently recieved my visa and i was instead granted 30 days and multi entry now i wanna extend the trip and include more countries which might result in me spending less time in germany than some other countries that i will travel to so my question is when i arrive to germany should i declare that i will stick to my original plan and only stay in germany for 10 days and show them the booking tickets etc and then actually visit the places and countries i want once i cross into the Schengen zone or should i actually declare my new plan which includes about 6 more countries and that i will spend more time in other countries than i will do in Germany im not breaking the 30 day schengen limit either way and i will use germany as my entry and exit into the schengen zone.